Stanford rape case shines new light on school's startling history

Stanford University has been in the spotlight over the past several days as a former student athlete was sentenced to six months of jail time for sexual assault, rather than the maximum sentence of 14 years.

The university, in a statement about the case, said officials did everything they could at the time of the assault. They reached out to the woman who was assaulted. They banned the perpetrator from campus. Police investigated immediately.

But the crime committed by former student Brock Turner has come to be seen, in part, as an extension of Stanford's culture, which has been the topic of national conversation for months.

The United States Department of Education is currently at work on five investigations into whether Stanford officials violated Title IX during investigations of sexual assault, the most Title IX investigations they are pursuing at one school.

And while not many keep tabs on the number of Title IX investigations ongoing at a given school, some recent cases have made news on their own.

In 2014, then-Stanford senior Leah Francis sent an email about being raped by another Stanford student. That email went viral.

Francis detailed the punishment doled out by the university, which amounted to little more than a suspension and mandatory community service, which Francis and others found far too lenient.

In 2015, Stanford student Tess Bloch-Horowitz wrote about the retaliation she faced from Stanford frat members simply for providing testimony about a sexist party.

According to a 2015 Stanford survey, 1.9% of their students experience sexual assault.

First, it combined the responses of men and women. Second, Stanford defines sexual assault so as not to include crimes such as sexual battery.

In addition to reporting the 1.9% statistic, the survey of 9,067 students also stated that 4.7% of women undergraduates have experienced sexual assault, and an additional 32.9% of undergraduate women "experienced another form of sexual misconduct."

Of those who reported nonconsensual sexual conduct, just 2.7% told the university.

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